
Paula
2016

Representation Score
Fair
2013
Director
François-Xavier Vives
Runtime
90 minutes
Average Rating
No ratings yetNew Showbiz Analysis
Landes is a character-driven film focusing on a woman's struggle to modernize a stagnant, feudal estate. It excels at subverting gender hierarchies by placing a female lead in a position of systemic power against patriarchal resistance. However, the film's scope appears limited to a specific, homogeneous social class. The lack of visible racial or LGBTQ+ diversity keeps the overall score moderate. Ultimately, the film serves as a critique of historical social structures through the lens of gendered ability to act.
Category Breakdown
The narrative focuses on traditional widowhood and estate management. There is no explicit mention of queer identities or non-straight-centered character arcs.
The film centers on a female protagonist who drives economic change in a male-dominated environment. She challenges traditional masculine authority and exercises significant control over her own life.
The setting portrays a historically homogeneous society with a lack of diverse racial blending. The depiction of bourgeois structures suggests a narrow focus on a single social class.
The film critiques stagnant Western class hierarchies and feudal-style labor systems. It uses progressive ideas to challenge oppressive agrarian social norms.
The film provides no information regarding characters with physical, neurodivergent, or mental health conditions.
Present on Screen
Limited or Absent
Official Synopsis
A young widow wants to carry on with her husband's work:managing a pine plantation where they extract resin;but most of all,she wants to have electricity installed in her valuable property.In this place,it seems that 1789 never happened and that time stood still:her workers,circa 1920,do not receive any salary and ,like the peasants in the middle ages,have to bring their production to their landlady. But her progressive ideas come up against men still remembering WW1 and against her bourgeois peers.Her foreman ,first bewildered ,is finally won over by his boss' resilience and strength of character.For her own good,the young heiress is too ahead of her time though.

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